WCDHB thrilled twith funding for Grey Base Hospital

West Coast DHB chief
executive, David Meates, says today’s announcement by the
Minister of Health is fantastic news. “This gives
certainty to our community and to our staff, who can now be
confident of a very bright future for health services on the
Coast. We now have certainty of a new modern Grey Base
Hospital and Integrated Family Health Centre to be built to
replace the ageing Grey Base Hospital,” Mr Meates said.

“We have been working with the West Coast
Partnership Group to refine our plans to ensure that they
were affordable, sustainable and would allow our clinicians
to provide care in the best way possible for people living
on the Coast.

The proposed new facility design is
the result of significant clinical engagement, with over 50
hours of workshops with the Design Team in February of this
year alone, involving more than 70 clinicians and staff from
the West Coast DHB, the West Coast PHO, general practice
teams, community pharmacy, Poutini Waiora, the Canterbury
DHB and service contractors.

Board chair Paul
McCormack said the $62.4 million for the hospital and
adjoining IFHC, along with $4.6 million for a new energy
centre, will see the West Coast having the most modern
health facilities in rural New Zealand. “This has been a
long time coming and I’m delighted the Board has been able
to deliver on its promise to the community.

“Securing this significant amount of capital funding
and knowing we will be able to provide services from
much-improved purpose-designed facilities that meet New
Building Standards and will be safe for patients, staff and
visitors is a huge achievement for the Board, management and
clinical teams involved.

“Clearly, there’s a lot
more work to come, as the detailed planning continues and
then as the new facilities take shape. I would however like
to acknowledge and thank everyone involved to date who has
helped achieve this result,” Dr McCormack said.

David Meates said the DHB was now in a position to start
making firm plans about how it would be sharing information
about the new facilities with the community.

The
plans for Greymouth include an Integrated Family Health
Centre co-located adjacent to the new hospital. The new
facility will include 60 beds. There will be three
fully-equipped operating theatres, one of which will mainly
be used as a procedure room. The facility will also include
an IFHC with 40 or so consultation rooms. The new
facilities will allow us to provide a full range of medical,
surgical, maternity, mental health and emergency services
currently available at Greymouth.

Chief Medical
Officer Dr Carol Atmore says that the significant input from
clinical teams has been essential in developing new and
flexible ways of working in the new facility. “These
include the use of a more home-like environment for older
people who are 'getting back on their feet' in the
independent living step-down beds, and providing a child
health service that will be able to flex up in size
depending on children and their families' needs.

These new ways of working, and facilities that are
purpose-designed, will enable us to fully realise the models
of care that our clinicians have spent the last four years
designing and implementing” says Dr Atmore.

“Clinicians will continue to have a strong voice and
be involved during the further planning and design phases of
the facilities redevelopment projects on the Coast,” Dr
Atmore said.

It’s full steam ahead in Buller too,
with an $8M Integrated Family Health Centre being brought to
life. David Meates says “We will be engaging with the
Buller community over the coming months to talk about their
new IFHC and how it will function. We will also be starting
a conversation with the Buller community about how people
would like to see aged care services being organised in the
future. And we will be providing an update on what’s
happening with maternity services and transport. It’s a
full agenda and a public meeting will be advertised closer
to the time.

“In the meantime, the West Coast
Partnership Group will be working with the DHB to call for
tenders for contractors, including construction companies,
to work on this project, which is the biggest project of its
type on the Coast for quite some time,” David Meates
said.

Grey District Mayor, Tony Kokshoorn, said he
was elated by today’s news. “It’s taken a while,
however, this is the news Coasters have waited for. A brand
new 60 bed hospital is adequate for our needs and will serve
our region well into the future. Congratulations to all
involved for the great effort in bringing this to life.
It’s certainly something worth celebrating,” Tony
Kokshoorn said.

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